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MR. DKVKNS'S ORATION 



Al' I'lIK DKllK ATION OK THK 



SOLDIERS AND SAILORS' MONUMENT, 



ON BOSTON COMMON 



^ 



AN 



ORATION 



Delivered in Boston September 17, 1877, 



AT THE DEDICATION OF THE 



SOLDIERS AND SAILORS' MONUMENT, 



ON BOSTON COMMON. 



BY 

CHARLES DEVENS. 



BOSTON: 
PRIVATELY PRINTED 

18 7 7. 






lliit|)or's IE T) it ion. 



One hundred and fifty copies octavo. 

Twenty-five copies ijuarto. 

Three copies Koyal Qiiarlo on IVhntman's J'aper. 



BOSTON : 
PRESS OF UOCKWKI.I. AMI ( lllljl IIILI.. 



ORATION 



°>tio 



Mr. Mayor, Fellow-Citizens, and Comrades: — 

On the anniversary of a day thi'ice memorable, as that 
of the first settlement of this town in 1G30; as that of 
the adoj^tion of the Constitution of the United States in 
1789; as that of a great battle fought for the Union on 
the soil of Maryland in 1862 (the victorious commander 
in vrhieh is to-day among our most honored and illus- 
trious guests), we have assembled to dedicate this 
Monument to the memory of the brave who fell in that 
great conflict, which, commencing for the unity of 
the government, broadened and deepened into one 
for the equal rights of all men. Before we part, 
some words should be spoken seeking to express, how- 
ever inadequately, our gratitude to those to whom it 
is devoted. Yet our ceremonial will be but vain and 
empty if its outward acts are not the expressions of 
feelings deeper than either acts or words. Its true 
dedication is to be found in the emotions which have 
been kindled by the occasion itself, and to which every 
heart has yielded. Here in this city, the capital of 
Massachusetts, a State from which more than sixty gal- 
lant regiments were sent to the field under the inspira- 
tion of her illustrious Governor, who now himself sleeps 



with those whom he sent forth to battle, we seek to 
surrender by this solemn act, from the age that is pass- 
ing to the ages that are coming, for eternal memory 
and honor, the just fame of those who have died for 
the Union. 

This is no Monument to the glories of war. While 
great changes for good have been wrought, and great 
steps taken toward liberty and civilization, by the con- 
vulsive energies exhibited in wars, these are but excep- 
tions to the great rule that, of all the causes which 
have degraded nations, opposed human progress, and 
oppressed industry, war has been one of the worst. If 
this were its object, it Avere better far that the stones 
which compose it had slumbered in their native quarries. 
!N^o pomp and circuQistance, no waving of banners, no 
dancing of plumes, can lend to war true dignity. This 
is to be found alone in a great and noble cause. 

Nor is this a Monument to valor only. There is 
something honorable in the true soldier, who, resolutely 
hazarding life, stands for the flag he follows; but there 
is that which is higher and nobler here. Among the 
finest monuments of Europe is that which is found in 
the beautiful valley of Lucerne, to the memory of the 
Swiss Guard who fell around Louis XVI., when the 
furious mob had stormed his palace. Placed in a niche 
of the limestone cliiF, of which it forms a part, a lion 
pierced with a speai- still holds in his death-grip the 
shield on which are carved the arms of the Bourbon. 
Few works of art are more majestic, or more fully show 
the hand of the master. It is courage only that it 
honors, and you wonder at the ])ower which has so 



ennobled and dignified it, when the great idea of 
patriotism was wanting. The Swiss, whom it commem- 
orates, simply did bravely the work which they had 
contracted to do, when the snbjects of the king, whose 
bread they had eaten, and whose wine they had drank, 
deserted him. The men whom we commemorate were 
brave as these, yet their place in history is not with 
them It is with the soldiers of liberty, who have fallen 
a willing sacrifice for country with patriotic devotion. 
It is with the Swiss, who, at Sempach or Morgarten, 
in defence of their own freedom, broke the power of 
the House of Austria, and not with the mercenaries 
whom they have sent to fight the battles of Europe. 

The sentiment of this Monument is patriotism. The 
men whom it honors were soldiers, courageous to the 
death; but it is their cause which sets them apart, for 
just honor and commendation, among the millions who 
have laid down their lives upon the battle-field. Pa- 
triotism such as theirs is the highest of civic virtues, the 
noblest form of heroism. Those who perilled theh- hves 
' in obedience to its promptings could gain no more than 
those who remained at home in inglorious ease; and yet 
they laid aside their hopes of comfort, to die for us. 
That the government they had Uved under might be 
preserved, that the just and equal rights of all men 
nfio-ht be maintained, they encountered disease, danger, 
and death, in all the horrid forms in which they present 
themselves to every one who takes his place in the ranks 
of an army, with the solemn belief that in no other way 
could they discharge the obligation imposed upon them 
by their birthright as citizens of a free country. What- 



6 

ever might be its difficulties and dangers, their path 
was so clearly indicated that they deemed they could 
not err in following it. When they fought and fell 
they could not know but that their eflbrts would be in 
vain, and the great flag, the symbol of our united 
sovereignty, be rent asunder; but they were ready to 
risk all, and to dare all, in the effort to deserve 
success. 

They were animated b}' no fierce fire of ambition; no 
desire to exalt themselves ; no expectation of attaining 
those rewards which are gained by great chieftains. 
They had no such hopes. They knew well that all 
the honor they could obtain was that general meed of 
praise awarded to all who serve faithfully, but which 
would not separate them from others who had been 
brave and true. ISTo doubt, as the blood of youth was 
high in their veins, they looked forward, in some in- 
stances, to the stern joy of the conflict; but beyond and 
above its tempest, fire, and smoke, they beheld and 
strove for the great objects of the contest. 

To-day they have seemed to come again as when they 
moved out in serried lines, with the flag which they 
went to defend waving above their heads. Again we 
have seemed to see them, their faces lighted with pa- 
triotic enthusiasm, and we have recalled the varied 
scenes of their stern and manly service, which was to 
end in a soldier's death for the country to which they 
had devoted themselves ; in each and every fortune 
patient and determined, staining their cause with no 
weakness or cowardice, dishonoring it by no baseness 
or cruelty. 



When we reflect how Uttle our system of education 
is calculated to adapt men to the restraints of military 
service, how inconsistent its largeness and freedom is 
with that stern control which necessarily marlis a sys- 
tem intended to give a single mmd the power which 
is embodied in thousands of men, we may well wonder 
at the ready submission which was always given to its 
exactions. To some the possession of marked military 
qualities, adapting them to control others, gave promi- 
nence; to some mere accidents of time or circumstance 
may have given high commands, while others, not less 
worthy, filled only their places, and did their duty in 
the ranks. But those who led must often have felt 
that their highest desire should be to be worthy of 
the devotion of those who followed. The distinctions 
necessary to discipline have long since passed away. 
Side by side, on fields bought by their blood, "no 
useless coflins around their breasts," but wrapped in the 
blanket which is the soldier's martial shroud, awaitmg 
the coming of the Eternal Day, they rest together. 

What matter is it while men have given of their 
utmost in intellect, strength, and courage, and of their 
blood to the last di-op, whether they fell with the stars 
of the general, the eagles of the colonel, on their shoul- 
ders, or in the simple jacket of the private? Wherever 
"on fame's eternal camping-ground their silent tents 
are spread," in the tangled wildwood, in the stately 
cemetery, or in nameless graves, not even marked by 
the word "unk-nown," the earth that bears them dead 
bears not alive more true or noble men. To-day we 
remember them all, without regard to rank or race. 



8 

seeking to honor those whom we cannot by name 
identify. 

If we do not commend patriotism such as these men 
exhibited, to whom are we to turn in the hour of danger 
which may come to those who are to succeed us, as it 
did to ourselves? Lessons such as they have given are 
not to be idly neglected when the time is gone when 
their services have ceased to be of immediate value. 
"We shall not need to go to Marathon and Platea for 
examples, whose brethren have shed their blood on fields 
as fiercely contested as those; and it would be idle to 
go anywhere for examples, unless, in rendering homage 
to the valor and patriotism displayed by our brethren, 
Ave seek to reconsecrate ourselves to the same virtues. 
Every instinct of justice calls upon us for the appropriate 
meed of praise, every suggestion of Avisdom counsels that 
Ave omit no opportiuiity to instil into others the admira- 
tion Avitli Avhich their deeds are regarded. The fables 
of romance, which, in some form, each nation of Europe 
has, that in great emergencies their illustrious chiefs will 
return again to rescue them, are not altogether myths. 
To each people that loves bravery and patriotism come 
again in their hour of trial the old heroic souls, although 
the form and garb they wear is of their present age and 
time. 

The time for natural tears has passed. To every heart 
the years have brought their new store of joys and sor- 
rows, since these men made their great sacrifice for 
country. The structure that Ave have reared stands to 
honor, and not to mourn, the dead. So shall it stand when 
Ave in our turn are gone, to teach its lesson of duty nobly 



9 

done, at the expense of life itself, to those who are in turn 
to take iipon themselves the duties of life. 

Those whose names it honors were known and loved 
by us, and are not to be recalled but with that manly sor- 
row born of respect and love. There are those also to 
whom they were even nearer and dearer than to us, who 
knew them as comrades, whose homes are forever dark- 
ened by the absence of the light of affection which their 
presence shed around them. But the age comes swiftly 
on which is to know them only by their deeds. We 
commend them to the grave and impartial tribunal of 
history as patriotic and devoted citizens; we invoke the 
considerate judgment of the world upon the justice of 
their cause; we renew and reiterate the assertion that 
there was a solemn duty laid ujwn them by their time, 
their place, their country, and that such duty they met 
and performed. To them, as to the Spartans who fell 
around their king in stern defence of the liberties of 
Greece, changing but the name of the battle-field, apply 
the words which Simonides uttered : — 

Of those who at Thermopyhi3 were slain. 
Glorious the doom and beautiful the lot, 

Tlieir tomb an altar, men from tears refrain. 
Honor and praise, but monrn them not. 

Although this Monument may often be passed as a 
thing of custom, although the lesson which it teaches 
may seem to be forgotten, yet in the hour of trial, if it 
is to come to others as it came to us, it will be freshly 
remembered. As in the Roman story which tells of 
Hannibal, the mightiest enemy Rome ever knew, it is 



10 

related that his father, Hamilcar, himself a chieftain and 
a warrior, whose renown has been eclipsed by that of his 
greater son, brought him when a child of nine years 
old into the Temple of the Gods, that he might lift 
his little hands to swear eternal hostility to the tyranny of 
Rome : so shall those who succeed us come here to swear 
hostility, not to one gi-asping power only, but to every 
tyranny that would enslave the body or enchain the mind 
of man, and eternal devotion to the great principles of 
civil and religious liberty. 

'Nor is this Monument, while it asserts our belief in the 
fidelity of these men, in any sense unkind or ungenerous 
towards those with whom they were engaged in deadly 
strife. It bears no words of boasting or unseemly exulta- 
tion, and the assertion of the justice of their cause, though 
firmly made, is yet not made in any harsh or controversial 
spirit. We recognize fully that those with whom they 
warred were our countrymen; we know their valor and 
determination ; we know that no foot of ground was yielded 
to us until to hold it became impossible, and that they 
resisted until men and means utterly and hopelessly failed. 
Whatever Ave may think of their cause, that as a people 
they believed in it cannot fairly be questioned. Men do 
not sacrifice life and property without stint or measure 
except in the faith that they are right. Upon individuals 
we may charge unreasonable temper, intolerance, pas- 
sion, and the promptings of a seltisii and ill-regulated 
ambition; but the whole body of a people do not act 
from motives thus personal, and have a right to have 
their bravery and sincerity admitted, even if more cannot 
be conceded. 



11 

The great conflict was fought out and the victory won 
which has established forever, if tlie force of arras can 
establish anything, that the Republic is one and indivisible, 
and amid the roar of battle and the clash of arms the 
institution of slavery, which divided us as a nation, which 
made of the States two classes diverse and discordant, has 
passed away. Perhaps, if we had fully known all that it 
was to cost, both at the J^orth and South, we should have 
hesitated more than we did before engaging in a strife so 
deadly and terrible. Yet, as we consider all the woes 
which must have followed the dismemberment of the 
Union, as we contemplate the vast gain for peace, free- 
dom, and equality by the emancipation of the subject race 
from slavery and the dominant race itself from the cor- 
rupting influence of this thraldom, who shall say that we 
have any right to deplore the past except with mitigated 
grief? We are yet too near the events through Avhich 
we were swept upon the bloody currents of the wai' to 
appreciate their full extent and magnitude, or all the con- 
sequences which are to floAV from them. We know 
already that we enter upon a higher plane of national life, 
' when it is established that there are no exceptions to the 
great rules of liberty among men, and that each is entitled 
to the just rewards of his labor and the position to which 
his talents, ability, and virtiie entitle him. As we stand 
here in memorj^ of our gallant dead, we urge upon all 
who have contended with them to unite with us in the 
effort to make of our new and regenerated government, 
purified by the fires of our civil conflict, a Republic more 
noble and more august than its founders had dared to 
hope. 



12 

Among all patriotic men there is everywhere an earnest 
desire that there shall be full peace and reconciliation be- 
tween the sections of the Union. Whatever may have 
been former divisions, there is nothing in the events of the 
past, there is nothing in the present condition of things, 
which should forbid this. We can stand, firmly and 
securely stand, upon that which has been definitely 
settled by the Avar. Oui-s was not a mere conflict of 
dynasties, or of fiimilies, like the English wars of the 
Roses, in wliich the great Houses of York and Lancaster 
disputed tlie English Crown. It was a great elemental 
conflict, in which two opposite systems of civilization 
were front to front and face to face. It was necessary 
that one or the other should conquer, and that it should 
be settled whether the continent should be all free or all 
slave. Yet the history of civil wars demonstrates that 
the widest and saddest difl'erences of religion, the most 
i-adical differences as to the form of government, have not 
prevented firm union wdien the cailse of dissension was 
obliterated. 

IS^^ow that it is determined that Union is to exist, it 
must be rendered one of mutual respect and regard, as 
well as of mutual interest. Unless this is the case there 
is no cohesive pressure of cither internal or external force 
strong enough to maintain it. There must have been 
a party victorious and a party vanquished ; but there is no 
true victory anywhere unless the conclusion is for the 
interest of each and all. It is not tlie least of the just 
claims that the xlmerican Kevolution has up^n the IViends 
of liberty everywhere, that, while it terminated in the dis- 
memberment of the British Empire, it left the English a 



13 

more free people than they would have been but for its 
occurrence. It settled for them more firmly the great 
safeguards of English liberty in the I'ight of the habeas 
corpus, the trial by jury, and the great doctrine that 
representation must accompany taxation. We speak of 
it as the victory of Adams and Jefferson, but it was 
not less that of Chatham and Burke. 

I should deem the war for the Union a failure, I should 
think the victory won by these men who have died in its 
defence barren, if it shall not prove in every larger sense 
won for the South as well as the North; if it shall not be 
shown that it is better for her that the contest against 
its rightful authority failed. 

It is not to be expected that opinion will be changed 
by edicts, even when those edicts are maintained by 
force. The changes of opinion must be gradual, and 
must be the effect of that time which enables feeling to 
subside and the judgment to act. Already there are 
brave and reflecting men who fought against us who 
do not hesitate to acknowledge that the end was well 
for them as for us, and who look forward hopefully to 
better results than could have been expected from a 
Confederacy which, if it had been founded, would have 
been at the mercy of each individual State, l^or is 
there any one bold enough to say, now that the system 
of slavery is destroyed, he would raise a hand, or lift a 
finger, to replace it. That the cause for whigh they have 
suflered so much will still be dear to those who have 
fought for it, or with whom it is associated by tender 
and affectionate recollections of those whom they have 
loved, who have fallen in its defence, is to be expected. 



u 

To such sentiments and feelings it is a matter of indif- 
ference whether there is defeat or success. They would 
exist, indeed, even if the reason and judgment should 
concede the cause to have been unwise. Certainly, we 
ourselves, had the war for the Union failed, would not 
the less have believed it just and necessary, nor the 
less have honored the memory of those engaged in it. 
When results are accepted cordiall}^, we can ask no 
more until the softening influences of time have done 
their work. 

On the fields Avhich were ploughed by the fierce artil- 
lery the wheat has been dancing fresh and fair in the 
breezes of the summer that is gone; and as the material 
evidences of the conflict pass away, so let each feeling 
of bittei'ness disappear, as together, both North and 
South, we strive to render the Republic one whose firm 
yet genial sway shall protect with just and equal laws 
each citizen who yields obedience to her power. Asking 
for ourselves no rights that we do not freely concede to 
others, demanding no restraints upon others that we do 
not readily submit to ourselves, yielding a generous 
obedience to the Constitution in all its parts, both new 
and old, let us endeavor to lift ourselves to that higher 
level of patriotism which despises any narrow section- 
alism, and rejoices in a nationality broad enough to 
embrace every section of the Union, and each one of its 
people, whether high or humble, rich or poor, black 
or white. 

There is no division to-day among the States of the 
Union such as existed when the Constitution was formed. 
In each and all the great principles of liberty and equal 



15 



rights are the same, to be alike respected as the only basis 
upon which the Government can stand. AVhatever may 
have been the sorrows or the losses of the war, there 
is no sorrow that cannot find its recompense in the added 
grandeur and dignity of the whole country. 



Comrades : — 

It is the last time that we, who have marched under 
the flag, and been the soldiers of the Union in its mortal 
struggle, shall gather in such numbers as meet to-day. 
"We are an army to whom can come no recruits. The 
steady, resistless artillery of time hurls its deadly missiles 
upon us, and each hour we are fewer and weaker. But, 
as we stand together thus, as Ave remember how nobly 
and bravely life's work was done by these men whom we 
have sought to commemorate, let us believe that the tie 
which binds us to them, in a great and holy cause, is 
not wholly dissolved. Their worldly task is done, their 
solemn oath, which we took side by side with them, is 
performed. For us life brings each day its new duties 
and new i-esponsibilities. 

In the classic mythology, which was the religion of 
the ancient world, it was fabled that the heroes were 
demi-gods. Kaised above the race of man, and yet not 
so far but their example might be imitated, they served 
to animate those who yet struggled with their mortal 
surroundings. So should these, our heroes, while the 
dust of life's conflict is yet on us, inspire us to loftier 
purposes and nobler lives. And, as we leave them to 
their glorious repose, and their pure and noble fame, let 



IG 

us go forth exalted by these hours of communion with 
them. 

Above them, as we depart, we utter the ancient form 
of words, and yet in no formal way, which conclude the 
proclamations of the State whose children they were : 
" God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts ! " And 
to this we add, with not less of fervor or solemnity, the 
prayer which was in their hearts, and upon their lips, 
as they died : " God save the Union of the American 
States ! " 



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